Four Gabled Wings Define a Minimalist House Overlooking Water
The house takes advantage of a coastal location in the North Fork of Long Island, approximately 160km east of New York City, where its leading architects SO-IL are based. Situated on a sloping clearing in lush woodland beside the waters of Long Island Sound, it is organized as a simple cruciform of gabled volumes which offer a variety of views, sample the lively terrain, and bring together different qualities of light, landscape, and vista to define interior spaces.
Each gabled volume is a wing radiating from the square center of the house. There, the dining area and library are situated below a roof terrace and garden, from which distant views are framed by the inward-facing gables. A basement screening room is also centrally located. The wings have full-height glazing or walls of stainless steel, and floors are concrete. Each wing serves a different function, and has a different relationship with the land. The two bedroom volumes extend towards the woods on higher ground, and one has a loft floor under the pitched roof. Another wing hosts the kitchen. In the living area wing, a brutalist-inspired fireplace divides the room from the central area. Made of massive concrete blocks with a steel flue rising like a column, it was designed by SO-IL in collaboration with occupier Nikola Duravcevic and his brother. This wing ends in a sheltered porch with a 4.5 metric ton stainless steel lattice screen extending upwards to create the outward-facing gable. A rectangular void in the lattice frames the view, which overlooks the water.
The roofs are zinc-clad with wood rafters, and cantilever over a continuous apron walkway around the volumes. Roofs over the kitchen and living room wings merge in a curve. A patio terrace of granite slabs extends beyond the walkway. Two smaller granite terraces are in other quadrants between the wings. Apart from the curving roof corner, the only other deviation from the house’s cruciform plan is a small solid extension of the kitchen volume, creating an entrance foyer. A rising path of 5cm thick granite slabs leads to the door. It is one of the elements of the landscaping by Patrick Cullina, who created the external terraces, preserved almost all trees on the 8-hectare site and incorporated native species in his topography-led design.
Project: Long Island House / Location: Long Island, New York / Architect: SO-IL / Design team: Florian Idenburg, Jing Liu, Ted Baab, Seunghyun Kang, Emma Silverblatt / Collaborator: Shenton Architects LLP. / Structural consultant: Silman / MEP consultant: 2LS Engineering / Civil consultant: D.B. Bennett / Landscape consultant: Patrick Cullina / Interior design: Duravcevic Brothers / Interior decorators: Charlap Hyman & Herrero / Main contractor: Taconic Builders / Client: private / Use: house / Project area: 650m² / Completion: 2019 / Photograph: Iwan Baan
